One New Game Of Thrones Character Has Finally Been Revealed

Official spoilers can be hard to come by when it comes to Game of Thrones. Actors tend to be pretty tight-lipped about their roles on HBO's smash hit, and we sometimes don't know anything about certain characters until they make their debut. Luckily, one actor has broken his silence and spilled some details about who he'll play in Game of Thrones Season 7. Jim Broadbent had this to say about his Thrones character:

I'm a maester, an archmaester. I'm an old professor character.

When the news of Jim Broadbent's casting first hit the web, his character was only described as "significant," so his reveal that he'll be playing an archmaester is actually pretty huge. Unfortunately, he didn't drop the name of the character, but book fans may be able to figure out just who he'll be playing. After all, the action of the series hasn't entirely outpaced the series, and there happens to be an archmaester named Marwyn from the A Song of Ice and Fire saga who could fit the bill.

Maester Marwyn first appeared in the fourth book of the series, A Feast for Crows. He's one of the few maesters of the Citadel who has studied magic, and he has been paying attention to the reports of Dany's dragons abroad. When he meets with Samwell Tarly and hears his stories about the White Walkers beyond the Wall, Marwyn decides that he must set sail across the Narrow Sea to find Daenerys and presumably provide her with counsel in her campaign to conquer the Seven Kingdoms for House Targaryen.

In the grand scheme of the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, Maester Marwyn doesn't exactly rank as one of the biggest characters. It sounds like he may have a larger role in the show. Jim Broadbent went on in his chat with ScreenCrush to reveal how many episodes he'll appear in, saying this:

I did five episodes. I did sort of one major scene in each episode.

Given that Season 7 will reportedly only run for seven episodes rather than the usual ten, Jim Broadbent is slated to appear in more than half of the season. Even if his scenes aren't huge, he'll evidently be a fairly important character, which actually isn't a total surprise. Marwyn may not be a major game-changer in the books at this point, but Jim Broadbent is such a venerable actor that it would have been a waste if he only popped in for a scene or two. Broadbent also mentioned that he spent a lot of time filming with John Bradley, so we can bet that we'll see plenty of Sam and this archmaester interacting at the Citadel.

Unfortunately, we can't say just yet when we'll be able to see Sam and the archmaester in action. HBO has not yet confirmed a premiere date for the next season, although Liam Cunningham did recently suggest that Season 7 would debut in July. We'll have to wait and see. Take a look at our breakdown of what we know so far about Game of Thrones Season 7 for a peek ahead, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule.